nearpar
Petty Officer 2nd Class
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2010
- Messages
- 143
How I Painted MY aluminum boat
Since I was doing a complete restoration on my18 ft. Starcraft HL-180 Runabout I thought it would be best to completely gut the interior then flip the boat over on some homemade saw horses. The HL-180 is about 84? wide so I made them 86?W x 36? H . Worked out very well. After flipping the boat the first thing I did was to give her a very good soap and water cleaning making sure I got every nook and cranny. I repaired a couple of small holes in the transom with epoxy and rivets. The hull had quite a few chips and scrapes from not using bumpers by the last owner when docked, but overall she was in good shape. I used a 6? air powered DA sander with 150 grit paper to feather edge the larger chips and scrapes. This worked well for that purpose. I wanted to leave as much of the old paint as possible on the boat to insure a good base for the new paint.
For the rest of the smaller paint chips and the old paint I WET sanded this with 220 grit wet/dry paper. This took the longest , but is the most important part of the process if you want a good adhesion, this is what you have to have especially with aluminum. After wet sanding for 10+ hours I again washed the boat with Soap and water then rinsed well. I also cleaned the entire surface of the boat with wax and grease remover. You can get this at any automotive paint supplier about $18.00 a gallon. I used about ? of a gallon the entire job, which consisted of 3 times during the entire painting process. Follow ALL directions on the cans ! You must use Self etching primer for all of the bare aluminum spots. I purchased a quart of ready to spray self etching primer from Eastwood company, but you can also use spray cans available from most auto supply stores.
You must top coat over these spots within 24 hours or you will have to sand them and re-spray again. I purchased 1 gallon of Maxx fill acrylic urethane primer ( it is yellow in color )came as a kit with the hardner. Again I cleaned the entire surface of the boat with wax and grease remover follow the directions on the can. This primer has excellent filling capabilities and will fill in most of the sanding scratches etc. I sprayed two coats and then let it sit overnight. This primer needs to be sanded, again I recommend Wet sanding with a bucket of water or a garden hose. It is very easy to sand and took about 4 hours to do a good job. I used 400 and 600 grit paper and used about 4 sheets for the whole process. Next I washed the boat with soap and water and then used wax and grease remover after it dried completely.
The boat is now ready to paint. You have to have the right conditions if you are going to paint outside like I did. Very little wind, low humidity, and the right temperature. I bought a one gallon kit of Acrylic urethane which included the paint, hardener, and medium reducer (70-80 deg. ) The color is Wimbledon white ( 1965 Ford Mustang ) , kind of a cream color white. I bought this on EBay for $89.00 from TPC global. I sprayed the boat with two coats of paint using a HVLP spray gun at 8-10 lbs at the gun.
The best advice I can give you is to follow the directions on the cans !
Supplies you will need
1. 1 gallon wax and grease remover.
2. 1 gallon of Urethane primer with hardener.
3. 1 gallon of acrylic urethane paint with hardener
4. 1 quart of self etching primer or spray cans as needed.
5. 1 gallon of medium reducer for cleaning gun and for primer.
6. About 10 sheets of 150,220,400,600 wet/dry sand paper.
7. Box of lint free cloths or other lint free wipes to use with the wax/grease remover.
8. Tack cloths
9. Masking tape
10. HVLP or conventional spray gun.
11. Rubber gloves and other safety equipment such as mask etc?
